1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of cooking appliances and, more particularly, to a cooking appliance having a concealment feature in the form of a pivotally mounted upper cooking surface arranged above and concealing a lower cooking surface.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the art of cooking appliances, it has become popular to offer cooktops having a variety of different cooking surfaces. Specifically, manufacturers have tried to design cooktops that offer a variety of different cooking surfaces without enlarging the size of the cooktop. In order to avoid enlarging the overall cooktop size, manufacturers have developed designs that either combine various cooking surfaces or offer modular, special purpose cooking cartridges. For instance, various types of cooking surfaces are offered in cartridge form which can be interchanged according to the instantaneous need of a consumer. While this option provides the consumer with a variety of different cooking options without increasing the overall size of the cooktop, the cartridges themselves can be unwieldy. In addition, cartridges require specific storages requirements, e.g. large cabinet space, thus reducing the availability of additional storage in the kitchen or another location which can make the use of such cartridges somewhat inconvenient. However, having the versatility of multiple cooking surfaces is still seen to outweigh the few disadvantages associated with replaceable cartridges.
Other known designs include incorporating different types of cooking surfaces on a single cooktop, examples of which include grills, griddles, and standard burners of various sizes. As with the cartridge option, the overall footprint of the cooktop is not increased, however, the availability of sufficient cooking surfaces is limited. A grill or griddle is not a replacement for a burner. Accordingly, a consumer who wishes to have available multiple burners is restricted by the size of the cooktop. Therefore, regardless of these prior proposed designs, there still exists a need in the art for a cooktop having a variety of different cooking surfaces while maintaining the overall size of the cooktop, such that the cooktop can fit into standard areas and meet the requirements of a residential kitchen.